


Behind The Glamour

by ThatWinchesterGirl67



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-06-24 22:52:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19733305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatWinchesterGirl67/pseuds/ThatWinchesterGirl67
Summary: A little piece on what lies behind the glamour of New York City





	Behind The Glamour

**Author's Note:**

> This is a bit of a random fic that I just started writing, there’s not much of a plot and the main character is a bit blurry, you could read it as the “she” mentioned is Clary or maybe the reader :) I was kind of just practising my descriptive writing with this one but I hope you like it either way!

Occasionally when her mind was too distracted, too loud, as she walked down the usually quiet street of Manhattan it was harder to strip away the heavy glamour that layered around the church. She had walked down that street many times before, the old church just another run down building that seemed so far away from the street. The rusted metal gate that gave off a horrible metal screech when pushed open and the surprisingly large garden that had now become overgrown seemed to separate it from the outside world. She had to admit it was a great cover, an old building wrapped in thick dark green ivy that climbed up the white walls, cracks that ran all over the surface like veins, and windows that been smashed in and were boarded over with wooden planks that stopped anyone from seeing inside. The building was just a dark shadow looming over the footpath.

It was the type of place that parents would warn their kids to stay away from. Scaring them with stories of how the walls were so old they would crumble if someone was to enter. The type of place that teenagers made up stories about, telling their friends about the monsters that hid in the darkness inside, hiding from the sun and hunting in the shadows. The stories were closer to the truth than they knew. Many teenagers had tried to sneak inside with cans of cheap beer and half-empty bottles of vodka they had stolen been stolen from their parent's cupboards while they were out of the house. They could never get the heavy wooden doors to open, blaming the rust on the hinges. It was how she had seen it until a couple of days ago.

Now she could see past the glamours and see it for what it truly was, The New York Institute. The actual building stood taller than the glamour. The walls covered in intricate drawings and symbols, none of the ivy and cracks that she had previously seen. She could recognize some of the symbols now, the swirling lines of the runes shined in the sunlight. The outside walls of the church and path leading to the decorated front doors were lit by witch lights that cast a bright white glow that could almost create the illusion of daylight. The once smashed in windows were now beautiful stained glass that streams of brightly coloured light flooded from, giving a hint to the people who lived, worked and trained within the walls. A community that had lived in the middle of Manhatten and all over the world for centuries, only a small number of people knowing of their existence. The Shadowhunters.

At first, she had hated the word "Mundane." The tone of voice the Shadowhunters used when they said it made it seem like they were lesser than them, not worth anything compared to those who knew of the Shadowworld, just another burden who couldn't protect themselves and needed to be looked after. Now she realized how fitting the word was because without the Shadowworld her life really was just mundane.

It was true that mundanes were blind to what truly happened around them, to what they shared their city with. It wasn't until she saw it from a different angle that she realized that everything she had believed to be true had been something her brain just couldn't keep up with. Now she could see it. After all, all the legends are true.

A handsome teenage boy around her age with a mess of blonde, almost golden hair that fell into his eyes, a strange glowing blade in his hand and dark black tattoos that covered the plains of his skin that were visible under his black t-shirt that had grinned at her from the crowd at Pandemonium went from a trouble maker looking to start a fight to Jace Wayland, a Shadowhunter from the New York Institute who had been hunting demons with Alec and Isabelle Lightwood. Thought the trouble maker looking to start a fight part she had been correct about.

A pair of glowing eyes staring at her from behind dumpsters, a low growl from the alleyways next to the Hunters Moon and the Jade Wolf, a flash of brown fur in the dark that she had thought was a stray dog scavaging for food was really the New York pack led by Luke.

An old hotel, The Durmort that had been closed down for construction for as long as she could remember seemingly left empty, now a vampire den home to Raphael and the New York vampire clan. Inside it was busier than she imagined, the rooms decorated with items from throughout the centuries collected by Camille and the other older vampires.

A shimmer of silver that darted through the dark waters of the East River catching the sunlight that she had shrugged off as fish she now knew were mermaids, something that even after she found out about demons, werewolves and vampire she hadn't expected to be real.

And she wouldn't trade it for the world.


End file.
